For more information contact Jason at (504) 830-3716 or jangelette@willwoods.org

PURPOSE

Our Married Couples Retreats are a great opportunity to break away from the daily struggles and tasks and spend time rejuvenating and enriching their marriage.

WHAT TO EXPECT

You and your spouse will spend time growing closer in your marriage through inspiring talks, private couple time, individual prayer time, Reconciliation, Eucharistic Adoration and the celebration of the Mass.

Through God’s grace, each couple may walk away with a renewed strength and a deeper commitment to each other and God.

Our retreats are not intended for deeply struggling marriages. If you need assistance in finding help in this area, please contact the Family Life Apostolate or please call us and we can help you in your search.

Location

The Christian Life Retreat Center is located on the beautiful grounds of the St. Joseph Abbey right outside of Covington, La. Each couple will be given their own newly renovated Married Couples Suite, with more square feet per room, brand new queen size beds, expanded and updated bathrooms, and your own quiet and relaxing seating area for two!

Cost of the Retreat

There are no fees for the Married Couples Retreat; this program operates through the donations of our guests. Those who are able to give more than the expenses involved, please do so. Those of more limited means may give whatever they can. Pre-registration deposit is $50. The total suggested donation for the retreat is $275 per couple. ($50 Pre-registration deposit + $225 = the total $275 suggested donation). For the June and July Two Night retreat, the deposit is $100 suggested donation and the full donation, including deposit is $355 per couple.

Early Arrival

If you are traveling a far distance or if you would just like to start your weekend getaway a little early, you can arrive on Friday evening. All that is requested is for you to make an additional donation of $50. A breakfast will be available at 8am. Please make this additional check out to Willwoods Community.

How can our retreat program help your parish?

Parish Sponsored Retreat:

We invite every parish to announce and promote all of our Faith & Marriage Retreats in their bulletins. We also encourage parishes to consider reserving a weekend with us. At minimum, sponsoring a retreat means that you will be the first to invite as many couples from your parish as you can to a weekend of your choice. You can use our retreat as a way of offering a very powerful, effective and memorable opportunity for your couples and for your parish, with little work on your part.

Benefits of Sponsoring a Retreat:

• Couples are more encouraged to attend• Strengthens marriages & parish life at the same time• The expense to the parish is little to none• It can be as easy as, “You make announcements, we do everything else!”

What couples are saying

This weekend saved our marriage. It provided just what we needed to reunite as a couple.

Thank you for the opportunity to enrich our marriage. The opportunity to have a great reconciliation in a relaxed setting. It was good to meet other couples willing to work on their relationship.

Spending time with my wife, away from all of the distraction and rediscovering why we were married in the first place.

We learned a lot and can’t wait to do another Willwood’s retreat!

Previous

Next

Frequently Asked Questions

Will there be any group sharing?A retreat is not group therapy. We will not ask any couple to share their feelings, emotions or intimate thoughts with the group or any other couple on the retreat.

What do we need to bring?Your private room with private bathroom will be fully stocked with pillows, sheets, extra blankets, and towels. You will need to bring your own toiletries, but if you forget we have some to handout.

How should we come dressed? As far as dress code, the weekend is casual. We will have Mass on Saturday and on Sunday so if you wanted to dress a little nicer than casual you may. For those who normally find room temperatures to be a little cold, you might want to bring a little something extra to add on to your wardrobe during the retreat.

Can we still attend the retreat even though we are unable to pay the suggested donation? There are no fees for the Married Couples Retreat; this program operates through the donations of our guests. A donation of $275 per couple is suggested to cover expenses that occur from the weekend. If a couple, for whatever reason, is unable to pay some or even all of the suggested amount, they are more than welcome to attend the retreat for free. Cost should not be the reason a couple is unable to attend. If you would like to make a donation to the Faith & Marriage Retreat program to help us continue this free invitation, please make checks out to “Willwoods Community” with an indication that you would like to support the “Faith & Marriage Retreat Program”.

If we come early on Friday, what time do we need to get there? Whenever it is convenient for you. Just give us an estimate of when you think you might be able to arrive and we will make sure that you have access into the Christian Life Center.

What if I am on a special diet? Please let us know if you have any special dietary needs. We have a professional cooking staff on site that can help make sure that everyone will have a delicious and healthy meal.

What is a retreat?What is a retreat? It is a chance to be with God and be with your spouse in a real and powerful way. It is that time where our souls can find rest and become renewed in love and commitment to one another and to God.

Analogy for the Guys: Down here in the south we love our football and if you have ever played the sport or followed it, you know that no matter how much a team is ahead or is down it is always good to go into the locker room for halftime to rest, to look at what is working and what is not working and to see how to improve. That is kind of like what a retreat is, a chance to get off the field for just a moment to spend time rejuvenating and reenergizing your love and commitment for one another and to deepen your faith in God.

Analogy for the Ladies: What would happen if you spent hundreds maybe even thousands on a garden for your home. What if you bought the best plants, the best soil and the best mulch and after all was planted the only thing you did was water it or what if you did not do anything else to it, how long would the garden last? Marriage is very much like a garden, if it is not cared for properly, it will wither. A married couples retreat is just one key ingredient, one important step to a nourished and flourishing relationship with your spouse and with God.

Going on a married couples retreat does not mean that your marriage is in jeopardy or that someone failed or is failing in their role as a husband or a wife. In fact, going on a retreat really means that you and your spouse are doing something amazing for each other and your marriage.

It is of most importance to note that Jesus the Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, made it a point, to spend time with the Father alone in prayer (cf. Luke 6:12). A retreat is not giving up or admitting defeat, it reveals Christ-like actions and it gives witness that apart from the relationship with the God we can do nothing!

Do you have to be Catholic to attend?While this is a Catholic Married Couples Retreat, we welcome all married couples to come and experience a wonderful weekend that will surely bless your marriage and your faith!

How often should we attend a married couples retreat? It is recommend that every couple attend one married couples retreat each year.

Can we leave right after mass on Sunday?We hope that everyone can stay the whole time. If in the event you may need to leave earlier than 1pm on Sunday, you can either leave after our 11:15am Mass or you can attend the 7:15am Mass at the Abbey church and then rejoin the group for breakfast.